Carys Kennedy is an educator, coach, and mentor specialising in disability equity and social justice in Higher Education. Carys champions the social model of disability and disability justice principles as tools to empower colleagues and other educators to take meaningful steps towards inclusion in their own contexts.
Underpinning Carys’s practice is the belief that inclusive, anticipatory approaches have greater potential for positive change than responsive reasonable adjustments. Through developing colleagues’ understanding of disability equity and inclusion, and supporting them to proactively identify and remove barriers, Carys seeks to improve the experiences and outcomes of disabled and marginalised students. Intersectional approaches are central to Carys’s practice, as is a commitment to anti-racism, LGBTQIA+ inclusion, and social justice in all its forms.
Carys is based at the University of the Arts London (UAL), teaching on PgCert Academic Practice and co-leading UAL’s Advance HE-accredited Professional Recognition Programme. Before joining the Academic Practice team, Carys worked in UAL’s Disability Service for 10 years. During their time at UAL, Carys has developed a range of disability inclusion initiatives, including an extensive staff development programme, an internal e-learning course (‘Introduction to Disability Inclusion at UAL’) and UAL’s Disability Inclusion Toolkit.
Carys is also a current PhD student at the Centre for Disability Studies, University of Leeds, investigating disabling barriers in Art and Design Higher Education. Carys’s doctoral research builds on their MA Academic Practice research project “Cripping the Crit: Examining the Inclusivity of Crits and Presentations through the lens of Disability Studies”. Through this research, and their ongoing practice, Carys aspires to work with and support colleagues across the Higher Education sector to promote disability equity and inclusion.